Agenda item

          The Director of Housing submits a report to seek feedback from the Housing Scrutiny Commission and Neighbourhoods Scrutiny Members on the transfer of the ASB function from the Housing Division to the CrASBU Team.  This will lead to one central team within the Council having responsibility for dealing with all ASB cases across the City from the first report to conclusion regardless of tenure.

The Director of Housing submitted a report to seek feedback from the Housing Scrutiny Commission and Neighbourhoods Scrutiny Members on the transfer of the ASB function from the Housing Division to the CrASBU Team.

The following points were made;

·         Currently ASB services were delivered by two areas from within the Council, the Tenancy Management Service within the Housing Division and the Crime and ASB (CrASBU) Team based in the Neighbourhood and Environmental Division.

·         The proposed transfer would lead to one central team within the Council having responsibility for dealing with all ASB cases across the City from the first report to conclusion regardless of tenure.

·         It was noted that Neighbourhood Housing Officers spent 20% of their time working directly on ASB cases.

·         If the function was to transfer to CRASBU, funding from the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) would need to be transferred too. Officers drew Members attention to 8.1 of the report, which set out the financial implications.

·         The change would be delivered by using vacant Neighbourhood Officer posts.

·         Enough staffing resource within the housing division would be retained to provide initial advice and signposting.

·         The change would enable Housing Officers to focus on delivering their primary roles.

·         Tenants & residents would need to be consulted on the proposal, in addition to all staff who would be affected.

·         Officers further detailed the benefits of the future working model and expressed the aim of providing an improved service.

In response to Members queries:

·         Housing Officers would remain the ‘go to’ person and would pass on essential knowledge and intelligence to CRASBU, maintain close links and also ensure that cases had been followed up and followed through.

·         A Member of the Commission requested that the continuity of Housing Officers knowledge which exists in housing stock should be maintained and protected. The presenting officer agreed to include and formalise this within the proposal and further expressed the importance of the Housing Officer facilitating the support that tenants needed in order for the service to support and sustain tenancies.

·         Members attention was directed to 6.3.4 of the report which set out the proposed new structure. This included the creation of specialist posts within the team reflecting the level of complex cases and also the creation of ASB investigators.

·         With the Directors’ consent, following the establishment of the new service model, the proposed new structure would be reviewed this time next year to ensure it was fit for purpose.

·         It was noted that at least 75% of complex cases involved mental health issues, as a result the mental health aspect would be bought into the service model.

·         In relation to low-level ASB issues, the service would encourage ‘self-help’ in the first instance whereby people would be encouraged to try and resolve certain issues amongst themselves, signposting and leaflets would also be available to support this. CrASBU contact would be the latter option for low-level ASB issues.

·         The service was looking at developing job descriptions, comments/ feedback taken from this meeting would looked to be merged into the new job roles.

·         In relation to the point of contact, Officers explained the system which they had including a daily checked CrASBU inbox, a shared ‘SENTINEL’ system with the Police and all cases were reviewed efficiently.

·         Officers noted some Members’ concerns that there would not be a designated telephone contact number for the service and only one single point of contact, especially for those people who had internet difficulties and language barriers.

Although some Members welcomed aspects of the proposal, there were also some of the following further concerns;

·         It was felt that there was not a clear breakdown as to what ASB Housing Officers were spending 20% of their working time on.

·         Concerns regarding the financial implications of the budget cut and the requests to ensure that the tenants had been consulted on the transfer of HRA funds. Officers responded that the needs and requirements from a finance perspective would be reviewed each year and an equitable process ensured.

·         It would be important to have someone/ people from a Mental Health Team/ specialist.

·         The Officer responded that the complexity of the current model was felt to be very confusing and inefficient at times. This new proposal would aim to offer an improved service and it was in no way financially driven.

·         It was noted that the Officers would be looking into how the new arrangements could be measured in terms of performance indicators.

·         A special Tenants and Leaseholders forum meeting was anticipated to be set up in August in order to carry out the consultation and a report/ feedback bought back to the next commission meeting.

AGREED; (all for the next meeting due to be held in September)

1.    A report would be bought back to the Committee with the results following the Tenants and Leaseholders consultation.

2.    To circulate the job descriptions to Members.

3.    To bring a further report.

Councillors Govind and Solanki were present from the Neighbourhoods Scrutiny Commission in the participation of deliberation of this item.